Exchange ★ A. Arlert

Chapter 4 - Get acquainted

A/N: nobody wants it but here it is - a new chapter 💙

***

Thursday.

Since the very morning Y/N was in a little tension due to the fact that today she had to spend time with Armin. She wasn't particularly happy about it. In these few days, she learned a lot about him - she just walked around campus with Lola, they went to different events for freshmen and exchange students. Also, she met students who studied with her. As Mikasa said, Armin had a certain reputation. And it wasn't as bad as she thought.

What she learned about him: he was one of the most successful students at their faculty - in the corridors of the building of their faculty, she saw letters with his name, he was on the lists of the best students, he participated in extracurricular activities, wrote various scientific papers. In that sense, he was very much like her. In addition to the well-known academic success, she learned from his classmates that he was also one of the most popular tutors, or... a person who was contacted when it was necessary to quickly write some work... naturally, for money. Which surprised her a little - because she also learned that he was rich. Like, very rich. This clarified a lot for her.

She learned that he was the heir to a massive hotel business empire, with more than 130 hotels around the world. Yes, she googled him after she heard about it. She didn't like to question others, but she couldn't deny herself the satisfaction of her interest. From the information she found, she realized that he had no parents, they died when he was only eight years old. After their death, all this went to him. When she found out about his family, she felt embarrassed - the first time they met, she said a bad thing about his parents, and now she wanted to apologize. But then she remembered that he was trying to take advantage of her, and all her guilt disappeared somewhere. In any case, she saw no excuse for what had happened.

At the same time... she only googled him, and it was only once. Even though she followed Mikasa on Instagram, she didn't try to find Armin. In fact, he wasn't interested to her, rather, on the contrary. She understood that more often than something dark was hiding behind a beautiful picture, something... real. Therefore, she have always been skeptical about what people put on public display. Especially the young and popular ones.

On Thursday, her classes ended at two o'clock. Their meeting was scheduled for four. She decided to wander around the campus for a bit, because she was still new here. The campus was large, there were many lecture halls, sports buildings, there were many different opportunities for extracurricular activities.

At half past three she was already in the library. She settled herself on the second floor and managed to pick up some books that she thought might be useful to her. She didn't particularly wait for him, starting to study the topic and tasks assigned to them. On Monday, Professor Zoë gave them the first list of questions to include in their work project, as well as a rough outline of the project in general, so that they could competently build their work. In mid-October, it was also planned to have something like an interim presentation, where they would all talk about the research they had done. Professor Zoë was a very eccentric person, and sometimes their reactions were... too emotional. But at the same time - their lectures were very exciting.

***

Thursday.

Armin woke up early in the morning. After taking a shower and preparing his clothes, he went downstairs, where a delicious breakfast was already waiting for him. Entering the dining room, he smiled - his grandfather returned from a business trip last night, and he was glad to see him. He approached him from behind, looking at the newspaper he was reading.

- Good morning, grandpa.

- Ah, my boy, did you get enough sleep?

- I guess so. You didn't go to bed after your arrival?